Not letting a little thing like four errors get in the way of a victory, the Irvine Valley baseball team snapped a two-game losing streak and climbed back to the .500 mark with a 7-5 win over host Riverside in an Orange Empire Conference game Tuesday afternoon at the Evans Sports Complex.

Irvine Valley was coming off two losses late last week to Cypress. With the win, Irvine Valley improved its record to 14-14 overall and 7-7 in conference.

"We swung the bat real well with 15 hits," IVC Coach Kent Madole said. "We ran the bases well and got good efforts on the mound. We didn't play great defense and need to be sharper there. But it was an important win for us."

IVC never trailed as it built leads of 3-0, 4-3, and 5-4 before putting the game away with a two-run eighth inning.

With two outs, sophomore left fielder Kory Burkhart reached on an infield hit. He hit a high chopper in front of second base where Riverside freshman Joseph Williams fielded it cleanly, but had no chance to throw out Burkhart.

Two Irvine Valley runners scored on the play. 

Sophomore catcher Corey Thibault, who had an infield single earlier in the inning, scored from third base and freshman center fielder Thomas Mobley, who reached base on a force out, raced home from second base.

"Kory ran a hard 90 and beat it out and Mobley hustled home from second," Madole said. "That was a real big moment in the game."

Sophomore third baseman Vince Hungerford led IVC's offense, going 4 for 4 with three runs scored and two RBI. Burkhart was 3 for 4 with three RBI and Mobley and sophomore second baseman Sean Williams each went 2 for 4 with a run scored.

Riverside (13-16, 4-10), trailing, 3-0, after 1 1/2 innings, closed to within 3-2 on a two-run double by sophomore right fielder Bryce Holland.

But Laser freshman starting pitcher Gary Gerhardt was solid the rest of the way. He went the first seven innings, throwing 121 pitches (74 strikes) to improve his record to 3-3 on the season. Gerhardt gave up eight hits and four runs (two earned). He walked three batters and struck out three.

Sophomore lefty Jared Haller came on with two outs in the ninth to notch his second save.

Riverside starting pitcher Travis Bender (1-3) went the distance and threw 143 pitches (92 strikes) and allowed six earned runs, walked one and struck out five.

Irvine Valley hosts Riverside on Thursday at 2 p.m.